Ukraine's forex reserves remain unchanged at $18.4 bln in Feb

Ukraine's forex reserves tentatively narrowed by 0.2% in February 2018, reaching $18.41 billion as of March 1, 2018, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has said in a press release.

The replenishment of forex reserves in February was primarily thanks to interventions in the foreign exchange market, the NBU said. The inflow of nonresident capital, together with the increase in foreign exchange income of exporters, along with the favorable situation on the global markets, positively influenced supply of currency in the interbank market. This allowed the National Bank to buy extra currency from the market to replenish its reserves, not opposing the strengthening of the hryvnia exchange rate.

In February, the NBU bought $426.9 million on the interbank market, including $222 million during interventions in the form of a request for the best rate. The NBU also sold $30 million during interventions in the form of requesting the best rate. Net purchase of currency by the NBU was $396.9 million.

In addition, in February, the reserves received $137.4 million from the placement of government domestic loan bonds denominated in foreign currency.

Payments of the government and the National Bank on public debt in foreign currency were made in February for the amount of $536.8 million. In particular, $465.9 million was paid to the International Monetary Fund, another $70.9 million was spent on servicing and repaying the public debt in foreign currency, including $16 million for servicing government domestic loan bonds pegged to foreign currency.

The volume of reserves was also affected by the revaluation of financial tools (change in market value, exchange rate of the hryvnia against foreign currencies) for $41.9 million.

The volume of international reserves covers 3.5 months of future imports and is sufficient to fulfill obligations of Ukraine and current operations of the government and the NBU.